THANKS be to Tottenham Hotspur!

THANKS be to Tottenham Hotspur!

Roy Keane praised the contribution of his two Spurs loanees, Andros Townsend and Jake Livermore, in his team’s 2-1 win over Leeds United on Saturday.

Townsend ran rings around former Ipswich Town defender Alex Bruce, who was eventually sent off for two bookable offences, both on the flying winger, while Livermore impressed on his full debut and set up the opening goal for Jason Scotland.

“I’m grateful to Tottenham, just as I was grateful to Sunderland for the loan players last year,” explained Keane.

“Jake (Livermore) was excellent. He gave us that bit of quality, and you can see why he’s a Tottenham boy.

“It’s not easy coming to the Championship on loan, let me tell you.

“We had been maybe lacking that bit of quality over the last week or two. We created some decent play and that final ball was very, very good.

“That will make or break your play, at whatever level you play at, and it was a good ball for Jason to finish very well,” added Keane.

But the Town boss saved his highest praise for Townsend, who has been improving game-after-game since his arrival from White Hart Lane in mid-August.

Keane was certainly not surprised that Bruce, who left Portman Road over the summer to join Leeds for a �250,000 fee, ended up seeing red.

“I thought Andros was outstanding,” continued Keane.

“He got at Alex (Bruce) a lot. There’s not many of those old-fashioned wingers around at the moment, so we’re grateful to Tottenham that these two boys are with us, especially with us missing Luke (Hyam) and Chuck (David Norris) today.

“I also think that we’re a good club for these young boys to come to.

“It’s the first time that I’ve kept Andros on for 90 minutes. We’ve been taking him off, because of worries over his fitness, a bit like Jake.

“I would say that Andros doesn’t need any encouragement from me, to go at full-backs, but if you are on a yellow card and Andros is running at you, there’s a good chance you are going to be in trouble.

“And I think it was a second yellow, there was no doubt about it,” added Keane, with reference to Bruce’s dismissal.